Jonathan Steedman (00:01.154)

Hey food groupies. Firstly, I'm so sorry about my voice. My children have kindly shared their plague with me and my wife. So it's been a fun time this week, but the show must go on. So I'm going to record anyway. And I get asked this question a ton. And I've been asked it a lot lately around breastfeeding and protein powder. Can I have protein powder while I'm breastfeeding? Basically is the question.

Now, if you want to fast forward to the end of this episode to find out the answer, you're going to be sorely disappointed, sorry, because it's not, there is no black and white answer. Unfortunately, what you're to have to do is make your own informed choice based on your own circumstances. I guess essentially individual tolerance of risk, which is probably a phrase I'm going to use more than once during this chat. But my job is going to be informing you so you can make that informed choice, right?

And so there's a few things that we need to consider when it comes to protein pattern breastfeeding. So the first thing is, yes, it will say on the label, I'm not suitable for pregnant or breastfeeding. That is partly because it's really hard to study pregnant or breastfeeding groups of people, right? Because as it's probably pretty obvious saying to an ethics board, hey, I just want to try and see if this...

causes bad things to happen to this group of pregnant people. That's really difficult to get approved for good reason. And so most of the time there's just no studies. So the reason it's not suitable on the packet is not because we've seen bad things happen. It's because we haven't been able to completely rule out that bad things will happen because we haven't tested it. Okay. So that's the first thing. I'm not everything I'm about to say is based on we're extrapolating from our best understanding of human physiology and nutrition. Okay.

And so that's why that label is there. So if that is enough for you to be like, look, you know what, I'm not going to do it. Totally fine. Please remember that protein powder is not essential. It can make hitting your protein targets easier. Sure. But also you can absolutely hit those protein targets with food. And so maybe you would feel more comfortable doing that. And if that's the case, happy days. Now I do know that a lot of people find protein powder just it's an easy way to bump up their day or to complete

Jonathan Steedman (02:22.744)

balance a meal, particularly breakfast, so you have oats and berries and other bits and pieces, but it doesn't fill you up quite as much or for quite as long as oats and berries and bits and pieces and protein powder. if that's you, these are the things that I would be mindful of in making your decision to continue with protein powder or not. Make sure that it is only protein powder, okay? I don't like, you know, you can get protein powder plus XYZ, particularly any kind of thermogenic stuff.

Absolutely, definitely do not do that. So everything from here on out I'm talking about is when it is just protein powder, not protein powder plus insert supplement here. Okay, so that's the first thing, make sure that you don't have some other sneaky stuff in your protein powder. The biggest risk and probably the main thing I want you to consider is the risk of contamination. All supplements are at a risk of contamination just by the way that they're made. It's very rare that

a supplement is made purely in that one factory and nothing else is made in that factory. So they use the same machines for lots of different things. And that could mean there's absolutely a risk of cross contamination. Okay. So sometimes there's been some nefarious contamination with supplements, but most of the time it is just cross contamination, you know, just like with any foods, you get food recalls because you know, things happen, right? So there is definitely that risk.

And that risk is there for anyone taking protein powder, but of course, in the context of breastfeeding or pregnant, there's an extra layer of risk. There's an extra level of if something goes wrong, it's extra horrible, right? So understand that we're gonna be a little bit more cautious in this situation. And so a way that you can be more cautious is to look for protein powder that is third party tested. What that means is that...

supplement company sends samples of each batch of protein powder away to an independent third party to an independent lab. They test that batch of protein powder to check that it is pure and there's no contamination in there. Then they send it back and they sign off and away they go. So I typically recommend if someone wants to continue with protein powder while pregnant or breastfeeding, they're using a third party tested one. Look for something that is tested by informed sport or HASTA, H-A-S-T-A.

Jonathan Steedman (04:39.178)

Some of my favorites for that, think Bulk Nutrients has a HASTA range. True Protein is HASTA certified. The Coles, I think it's just the Elite range. I don't think their standard range of protein powder is HASTA certified, but those are three good ones. Certainly there's more out there. That's a good place to start. And so that way you've got that extra layer of confidence. Okay, this has been tested for extra contamination. And so I know that it's safer and I've greatly reduced that risk.

In terms of actual protein and like there's nothing damaging about having a scoop of protein. It's just another source of protein just in the like eating another chicken breast is a source of protein. Right. So that's why, you know, physiologically, you nutritionally, we know that it is not the protein. That's the problem. It is the potential for contamination or the potential of there being other supplements in there that are not safe for pregnancy. And so that's really it.

Those are the two things that you need to be mindful of. You need to make sure that there is no other stuff in your protein powder. And then you need to, like that has been intentionally put there and will be there on the label. But then you also need to make sure that there is not other stuff in your protein powder that is unintentionally in there via cross-contamination. And the best way to do that is to look for something that has been third-party tested. Now, just to reiterate, if you're not comfortable taking protein powder while you're pregnant or breastfeeding, don't.

plenty of other ways that you can get that protein in. You can also actually have a suboptimal protein intake for a little while and everything's also gonna be okay. There's worse things that you could be doing with your nutrition, right? So I don't want you to feel like you're really sacrificing something if you are not comfortable having that protein powder. But if you are comfortable having that protein powder and you follow those steps I outlined, that's gonna give you the best chance, the lowest risk way to include protein powder whilst you're pregnant or breastfeeding. I think that's everything.

I hope that helps. I hope that answered your question. And if it didn't, please make sure that you send me a message on Instagram with anything else that I've missed. Otherwise, I'll chat to you guys next time.